Arizona Game and Fish Department Region 1 Nutrioso Creek Spinedace Salvage

Arizona Game and Fish Department
Region 1
Nutrioso Creek Spinedace Salvage-Repatriation Report
July 6,2006

Codey Carter¹, Mike Lopez¹, Rob Bettaso¹, Marty Underwood²
¹Arizona Game and Fish Department
²US Fish and Wildlife Service

Fish being released May 31, 2006, at site REL1 on the EC Bar Ranch, left to right B. Bettaso (USFWS), J. Crosswhite (EC Bar Ranch), C. Carter (AGFD). Photo by Mike Lopez, AGFD.

In April of 2006 personnel from the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) conducted a fishery survey of Nutrioso and Rudd Creeks (Carter 2006). The purpose of this study was to assess the status of the native fish assemblage with special emphasis on Little Colorado spinedace Lepidomeda vittata. The Little Colorado spinedace was listed as threatened by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1987 and approximately 5 miles of Nutrioso Creek is designated critical habitat (USFWS 1987; USFWS 1998). The reach of Nutrioso Creek above Nelson Reservoir contained spinedace. Due to drought conditions this reach was monitored for persistence of water. A site visit conducted on May 30, 2006 found significant drying of habitat (Figures 3-5). The lower end of the reach near Nelson Reservoir was completely dry (Figure 2). U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel were contacted and a salvage-repatriation effort began on May 31, 2006.

Fish were collected by electrofishing (Smith-Root LR-24 backpack electrofisher) and seining on U.S. Forest Service land and small parcels of private property. Single passes were conducted with both gear types in the lower reach (Figure 1: BEGIN to P-1)(Table 1). Seining was found to be more effective and was the sole means of capture from P-2 to END (Riedhead private property boundary) (Figure 1)(Table 1). Deeper pools, some containing mature bluehead sucker, were found between P-1 and P-2. This section of stream was salvaged using only single pass electrofishing to remove a portion but not all of the spinedace since some of these pools may be perennial and able to hold fish throughout the summer. This reach will continue to be monitored and further salvage operations will be conducted if needed. All native fishes (Little Colorado spinedace, Lepidomeda vittata; bluehead sucker, Catostomus discobolus; and speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus) were salvaged. Fathead minnow Pimephales promelas were removed from the stream and deposited on the bank when encountered. Salvaged fishes were handled and transported in accordance with AGFD small-bodied warm water native fish collection, transport, and stocking protocol. All salvaged fishes were transported to perennial habitat on the EC Bar Ranch (Figures 1, and 6-8)(Table 1). Spinedace mortalities were preserved in ethanol and housed at AGFD, Pinetop Regional Office.

Figure 1. Map of Nutrioso Creek showing the beginning location of the salvage (BEGIN) and the end of the salvage (END). Release sites are marked as REL1, REL2, and REL3 on the EC Bar Ranch. The stream reach with possible perennial pools is located between waypoints P-1 and P-2.

Table 1. Coordinates (NAD27) for the downstream end of the spinedace salvage (BEGIN), downstream end of the reach with possible perennial pools (P-1), upstream end of the reach with possible perennial pools (P-2), upstream end of spinedace salvage (END), and spinedace release sites (REL-1, REL-2, and REL-3).

Waypoint	UTM-E	UTM-N
BEGIN	667511	3766954
P-1	667011	3764560
P-2	666737	3763649
END	666323	3762390
REL-1	666420	3761264
REL-2	666427	3761670
REL-3	666424	3761461

A total of 767 Little Colorado spinedace were salvaged from drying habitat in Nutrioso Creek and moved upstream to perennial habitat on the EC Bar Ranch (Table 2)(Figures 1, and 3-8). Other native fishes salvaged included 99 bluehead sucker and 175 speckled dace. A total of 11 spinedace mortalities occurred during the salvage.

Table 2. Numbers of fishes captured per reach and method of capture. Little Colorado spinedace, Lepidomeda vittata (LEVI); bluehead sucker, Catostomus discobolus (CADI); and speckled dace, Rhinichthys osculus (RHOS), were salvaged and transported to release sites. Fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas (PIPR), were deposited on the bank.

Reach	Method	LEVI	CADI	RHOS	PIPR
BEGIN-P2	Electrofishing	85	2	23	752
BEGIN-P1	Seining	333	32	48	Numerous
P2-END	Seining	349	65	104	Numerous

The Little Colorado spinedace population above Nelson Reservoir has had significant recruitment since the surveys of May 2005 (McKell 2005; Carter 2006). In surveys from 1994-2000 spinedace were common (Lopez et al. 2001), but in 2005 surveys only 7 spinedace were found in the reach of Nutrioso Creek upstream from Nelson Reservoir. It is likely that much of Nutrioso Creek dried up at some point between 2000 and 2004. The year 2002 was a particularly dry year. A wet winter-Spring in 2004-2005 likely stimulated a successful spawning event that yielded much higher numbers of spinedace in 2006. Perennial flows that existed through 2005 and 2006 probably allowed spinedace to spread throughout the reach of Nutrioso Creek that was salvaged. With the insecure availability of water in Nutrioso Creek it is likely that ongoing, active management of spinedace will be required to insure that spinedace persist in Nutrioso Creek over the long term. A refugia pond for the Little Colorado River/Nutrioso Creek/Rudd Creek spinedace population is currently being established at the AGFD Grasslands Wildlife Area. This facility may be ready to take fish as early as the fall of 2006. This refugia can play and important role in maintaining spinedace in the Nutrioso-Rudd Creek drainage.

Figure 3. Photo point of a site located between the downstream end of the salvage area and P-1 taken on April 13, 2006 (left) and May 30, 2006 (right).

Figure 4. Drying habitat in the reach between the downstream end of the salvage (BEGIN) and P-1.

Figure 5. Drying habitat in the reach between P-2 and the upstream end of the salvage project.

Prepared by Codey Carter
Region I Native Fish Specialist
Arizona Game and Fish Department
July 6, 2006

Lopez, MA, J.R. Novy, RJ. Dreyer, and G.R Gonzales. 2001. Nutrioso Creek fish management report. Fisheries Technical Report 0 1-0 1. Statewide Fisheries Investigations, Federal Aid Project F-7-M-43. Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix, Arizona. (link to report http://ecbarranch.com/adeq 2002/Spinedace/fish report.htm)

USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service). 1987. Final rule to determine Lepidomeda vittata (Little Colorado spinedace) to be a threatened species with critical habitat. Federal Register 52(l79):35034-3504l. 16 September 1987.

USFWS (United States Fish and Wildlife Service). 1998. Little Colorado River spinedace, Lepidomeda vittata Recovery Plan. Albuquerque, New Mexico. (link to report http://ecbarranch.com/adeq 2002/Spinedace/fish.htm)